SUNDAY FOCUS : Bentonville plants seeds of change
Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2008
BENTONVILLE — In a world in which the price of food is skyrocketing, learning to grow your own is becoming a valued skill across the country.
Here in Bentonville, local leaders are looking to foster sustainability through building the city’s first community garden.
This summer, the city’s Tree and Landscape Committee began discussing plans to build a community garden in Orchards Park, planned for the intersection of Northeast J Street and John DeShields Boulevard. The park, still in the preliminary design phase, will be located across from Legacy Village on John DeShields Boulevard.
The committee is seeking expertise on how to build the garden. The goal is to allow people unable to maintain gardens at their residences the opportunity to grow their own goods and interact with others in a public setting.
“ This would be a practical way to use public land, ” Community Development Director Troy Galloway said. “ We’re getting to the times when we need to start thinking about things like this. … It really promotes sustainability and what we’re trying to do. ”
Sarah King, a community programs coordinator for the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Springdale, worked to build a community garden in Madison, Wis., in 2001. The garden now has 100 plots serving 100 families.
King said gardening is becoming extremely popular among families, as food prices have increased more than 40 percent over the past year.
In a June 11 story in The New York Times, the W. Atlee Burpee Co. reported sales of vegetable and herb seeds and plants were up by 40 percent over last year — double the annual growth of the last five years.
The trend is following locally. Jeanne Stokebrand, a longtime employee at Garden City in Bentonville, said the sales of seeds increased tremendously.
“ Already this spring, we saw more sales on our seeds than I can ever remember, especially with our vegetables, ” Stokebrand said. “ I’ve never seen anything like it, and I started here 10 1 / 2 years ago. The economy has made a difference. ”
Stokebrand said she hasn’t seen a lot of novice gardeners coming in to ask about how to grow their own. “ Older ones who have gone through hard times are going back to starting their seeds, ” she said.
Already the demand is on the rise for fall vegetable seeds, Stokebrand said.
Part of what a community garden can provide, King said, is the ability to educate novice gardeners — and provide them a community to interact with and gain the skills and expertise necessary to grow their own. “ You can have informal mentoring in a community garden. People share knowledge about what are the best things to grow, and there’s a lot of sharing that goes on in a community environment, ” King said.
Community gardening can also provide benefits to people who may not have a suitable place to garden at their own homes. “ If you live in a small condo, you don’t have the sun that you need or the space that you need. Folks who may be renting a place — those might be people who need a place that is a great garden space that is really good for growing food. ”
Now that a section of land is eyed, it will take more than sunshine and raid to grow the garden.
“ It really does take the support of a city to get it started. It really does take human capital, and it takes social capital — somebody who is going to volunteer and put some leadership into things, ” she said.
Organizers can determine how large plots can be, as well as what features are necessary to build the garden.
But the best part about a community garden is that in each plot each family can express something about themselves through what they grow.
“ It’s like a quilt. Each patch belongs to a family or an individual. They really form a patchwork. … The beauty of a community garden is that each plot reflects what a gardener wants to be. You see flowers, peppers, ornamental trellises, ” King said. “ You see a great diversity in what people do. ”
The Tree and Landscape Committee is seeking input from those interested in building the community garden.
For more information, call Danielle Semsrott at 271-3126.
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